U.S.: Clawbacks Without Clawsby Gretchen Morgenson, New York TimesSeptember 10th, 2011The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 encouraged the Securities and Exchange Commission to fine corporate executives if they certified financial results that turned out to be bogus. The record suggests a bark decidedly worse than its bite. The SEC has filed cases against 31 executives at only 20 companies so far and recovered a total of $12.2 million from nine former executives to date.

LIBERIA: Hunting for Liberia’s Missing Millionsby Doreen Carvjal, New York TimesMay 30th, 2010How much money did Charles G. Taylor, the deposed president of Liberia, siphon out of his war-shattered country, and where is it? Investigators are developing a new strategy involving filing civil damage claims against companies, governments and international banks that they contend aided Mr. Taylor in illegal transactions.

US: Oil Hits Home, Spreading Arc of Frustrationby Campbell Robertson, Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder, New York Times May 24th, 2010More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. The disaster underscores the enduring laxity of federal regulation of offshore operations and has shown the government to be almost wholly at the mercy of BP and of Transocean, the company leasing the rig.

US/AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN: U.S. Is Still Using Private Spy Ring, Despite Doubtsby Mark Mazzetti, New York Times May 15th, 2010Top military officials continue to rely on a secret network of private spies set up by Michael D. Furlong, despite concerns about the legality of the operation. A New York Times review found Mr. Furlong’s operatives still providing information, with contractors still being paid under a $22 million contract, managed by Lockheed Martin and supervised by a Pentagon office.

US: U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permitsby Ian Urbina, New York Times May 13th, 2010The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.

US: BP Is Criticized Over Oil Spill, but U.S. Missed Chances to Actby Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton, New York TimesApril 30th, 2010The Obama administration began Friday to publicly chastise BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials initially seemed to underestimate the threat of a leak, just as BP did last year when it told the government such an event was highly unlikely.

US: Oil Spill’s Blow to BP’s Image May Eclipse Costsby Clifford Krauss , New York TimesApril 29th, 2010BP says that the offshore drilling accident that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico could cost the company several hundred million dollars. Nobody really knows whether the oil giant is being too conservative about the cost for the April 20 accident, which some experts say could end up as the biggest oil spill in history.

US: Financial Debate Renews Scrutiny on Banks’ Sizeby Sewall Chan, New York TimesApril 20th, 2010One question has vexed the Obama administration and Congress since the start of the financial crisis: how to prevent big bank bailouts. In the last year and a half, the largest financial institutions have only grown bigger, mainly as a result of government-brokered mergers. They now enjoy borrowing at significantly lower rates than their smaller competitors, a result of the bond markets’ implicit assumption that the giant banks are “too big to fail.”

US: Courts Take On Campaign Finance Decisionby Adam Liptak, New York Times March 26th, 2010Two federal courts here issued decisions on Friday addressing the impact of Citizens United, January’s big Supreme Court campaign finance ruling, on a new issue — whether the government may constitutionally restrict the size of contributions to groups that spend money to support political candidates.

AFGHANISTAN/US: Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militantsby DEXTER FILKINS and MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times March 15th, 2010Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States. The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives.

US: Obama's Budget Calls for Billions in New Spending for Dronesby Jason Leopold, TruthoutFebruary 2nd, 2010Shares of major US defense contractors including Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman rose upon the unveiling of President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 spending plan for the Pentagon, part of the president's overall $3.8 trillion budget proposal. More than $2 billion will be used to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, blamed for a significant rise in civilian casualties in the "war on terror."

US: Idea of company-as-person originated in late 19th centuryby Martha C. White, Washington Post January 31st, 2010The Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision in Citizens United v FEC rolled back long-standing restrictions on corporate campaign finance donations. At the crux of the decision was a determination that corporations have a right to free speech. The court ruled that limiting the amount that companies can spend promoting their favored candidates is tantamount to denying First Amendment rights.

US/KUWAIT: Settlement possible in military contractor fraud caseby Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionJanuary 29th, 2010Kuwaiti firm Agility (formerly Public Warehousing) indicted here for overcharging the Army on an $8.5 billion contract is negotiating a possible settlement with the Justice Department. On Nov. 9, a federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted the firm on charges it gouged the U.S. government by overcharging on its contract to supply food to American troops in Iraq.

UK: U.K. to Crack Down on Tax Evasion in Developing Countriesby Laurence Norman, Wall Street JournalJanuary 26th, 2010The U.K. government will on Wednesday set out proposals to broaden the crackdown on tax evasion to benefit developing countries, setting a year-end deadline for a U.K.-led multilateral tax-information-sharing accord with emerging nations. That could eventually open the way for multination tax-information accords, which would include former tax havens, developed and developing nations.

US: Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limitby Adam Liptak, New York Times January 21st, 2010Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

US: Banks Set for Record Payby STEPHEN GROCER, Wall Street Journal January 14th, 2010Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture.

US/IRAQ: U.S. Companies Join Race on Iraqi Oil Bonanzaby TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times January 13th, 2010American companies have been arriving in Iraq to pursue an expected multibillion-dollar bonanza of projects to revive the country’s petroleum industry. But there are questions about the Iraqi government’s capacity to police the companies. “These are for-profit concerns and they are trying to make as much money as they can,” said Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch.

NIGERIA: Ex-militant leader heads SPDC’s patrol teamby Chris Ejim, Nigerian CompassJanuary 8th, 2010Authorities of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have unveiled a new security strategy for securing oil pipelines and platforms within the Niger Delta region. Shell has appointed former MEND militant commander, Eris Paul, and his company, Eristex Pipeline Patrol, to secure oil facilities in the Southern Ijaw area of the Delta.

EUROPE: Europe’s Vast Farm Subsidies Face Challengesby STEPHEN CASTLE and DOREEN CARVAJAL, New York Times December 29th, 2009The last time the European Union decided the future of its 50 billion euro agricultural aid program, in 2005, the deal was cut behind closed doors in a luxury suite at the five-star Conrad Brussels hotel. Now, 2013 is closer at hand and a new round of maneuvering has begun to reshape the richest system of agricultural handouts in the world.

JORDAN: For AIG’s Man in Jordan, War Becomes a Business Opportunityby T. Christian Miller, ProPublicaDecember 17th, 2009For Emad Hatabah, the war in Iraq became a business opportunity. As AIG's chief representative in Jordan, he was responsible for coordinating the care for hundreds of Iraqis who had been injured while working under contract for U.S. troops. He fulfilled his functions by sending business to himself, his friends and business associates, according to interviews and records.

US: DynCorp Fires Executive Counselby August Cole, Wall Street JournalNovember 28th, 2009DynCorp International Inc. said it has terminated one of its top lawyers, a move that comes on the heels of the government contractor's disclosure that some of its subcontractors may have broken U.S. law in trying to speed up getting licenses and visas overseas.

AFGHANISTAN: Paying Off the Warlords,
Anatomy of an Afghan Culture of Corruptionby Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch.comNovember 17th, 2009Among the dozens of businesses with lucrative Afghan and U.S. taxpayer-financed reconstruction deals are two extremely well connected companies -- Ghazanfar and Zahid Walid -- that helped to swell the election coffers of President Hamid Karzai as well as the family business of his running mate, the country's new vice president, warlord Mohammed Qasim Fahim.

US/ECUADOR: New nonprofit uses Web to pressure Chevronby David A. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle November 16th, 2009Retired retail executive Richard Goldman was astonished when he heard about the $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador. SO he has created a nonprofit group, Ethos Alliance, that will use social-networking tools to spread word of the case and put pressure on Chevron.

BRAZIL: Giants in Cattle Industry Agree to Help Fight Deforestationby Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times October 7th, 2009Environmental groups hailed a decision this week by four of the world’s largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest. Brazil has the world’s largest cattle herd and is the world’s largest beef exporter. It is also the fourth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

US: The Rights of Corporations (Op-Ed)New York Times September 22nd, 2009The question at the heart of one of the biggest Supreme Court cases this year is simple: What constitutional rights should corporations have? The legal doctrine underlying this debate is known as “corporate personhood.”

ANGOLA: The dark side of doing businessby Rob Rose, Times South AfricaSeptember 17th, 2009As Angolan leader Jose Eduardo Dos Santos wooed President Jacob Zuma this week, some South African companies are furious at having been fleeced out of cash by doing business with the oil-rich country

AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractorCNN.comSeptember 3rd, 2009This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel."

US: So You Squandered Billions --- Take Another Whack At Itby Steven Perlstein, Washington PostSeptember 2nd, 2009During the heyday of the credit bubble, they were the financiers who earned huge bonuses for creating, trading and investing other people's money in those complex securities that resulted in trillions of dollars in losses and brought global financial markets to their knees. Now they're out there again hustling for investors and hoping to make another score buying and trading the same securities.

US: New Hire Highlights Altegrity's Growing Ambitionby Thomas Heath, Washington Post August 17th, 2009For more than 12 years, Falls Church-based USIS quietly scrutinized the backgrounds of individuals who needed security clearance to work in the U.S. government or in the private sector. Now re-named Altegrity, the company has ambitions of securing government contracts for much more than investigation and data-collection.

SOUTH AMERICA: Plundering the Amazon by Michael Smith and Adriana Brasileiro, Bloomberg.comAugust 16th, 2009Alcoa and Cargill have bypassed laws designed to prevent destruction of the world’s largest rain forest, Brazilian prosecutors say. The damage wrought by scores of companies is robbing the earth of its best shield against global warming.

US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contractby V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post August 12th, 2009A Defense Department auditor, appearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, testified Tuesday that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait.

FRANCE: In French Inquiry, a Glimpse at Corporate Spyingby DAVID JOLLY, New York Times August 1st, 2009A corporate espionage case unfolding in France involves some of the biggest French companies, including Électricité de France, the world’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, and Vivendi, the media and telecommunications conglomerate. The story has the elements of a corporate thriller: a cast of characters that includes former French spies and military men, an American cycling champion, Greenpeace activists and a dogged judge.

US: House votes to rein in ‘excessive pay’ for company execsby Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science MonitorJuly 31st, 2009On Friday the U.S. House of Representativs passed a high-visibility bill to give shareholders and federal regulators a stronger hand in curbing excessive or risky executive compensation. Industry groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed the bill as an overreach into private business decisions.

US: Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses Amid Wall St. Crisisby Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times July 30th, 2009Nine of the financial firms that were recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the New York attorney general. The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid.

US: Cuomo Says Schwab Faces Fraud Suitby Liz Rappaport, Wall Street Journal July 20th, 2009New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has warned Charles Schwab & Co. that his office plans to sue the firm for civil fraud over its marketing and sales of auction-rate securities to clients. Emails and testimony cited in the letter show Schwab's brokers had little idea of what they were selling and later failed to tell clients that the market was collapsing.

UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giantby Danny Fortson, Sunday Times (UK)July 19th, 2009In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it.

UK: Two men and a website mount vendetta against an oil giantby Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times (UK)July 19th, 2009In Colchester, Essex, John and Alfred Donovan are compiling perhaps the world's largest dossier on Royal Dutch Shell, at royaldutchshellplc.com. It's an awkward position for Shell, this month crowned by Fortune magazine as the world’s largest company, as trying to shut the website down would draw even more attention to it.

US: Industry Takes Aim at Plan to Create Financial Protection Agencyby Brady Dennis, Washington Post July 7th, 2009Business and trade-group lobbyists are beating a path for the first major battle over the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Recent discussions have involved the American Bankers Association, National Auto Dealers Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Bankers Association and other lobbyists.

US: Madoff Is Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Schemeby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 29th, 2009A criminal saga that began in December with a string of superlatives — the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history — ended the same way on Monday as Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum for his crimes.

AFRICA: Blood diamond scheme 'is failing'BBC NewsJune 24th, 2009Officials are meeting to review the Kimberley Process, amid criticism that the scheme, set up to certify the origin of diamonds to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they are not financing war and human rights abuses, is failing. The Kimberley Process emerged from global outrage over conflicts in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, largely funded by the plundering of diamond resources.

US: Madoff Suits Add Details About Fraudby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 22nd, 2009Three lawsuits filed on Monday provided new details about what regulators say went on inside Bernard L. Madoff’s long-running Ponzi scheme, including information about who might have helped perpetuate the fraud for so long.

US: Hedge Funds Boost Profile in Lobbyingby Susan Pulliam and Tom McGinty, Wall Street Journal June 22nd, 2009Many hedge funds were relieved when the Obama administration's financial-overhaul plan included no big surprises to the lucrative, secretive industry. In 2008, major hedge funds and their trade groups spent $6.1 million lobbying Washington, up from $4.2 million in 2007 and nearly seven times the $897,000 average from 2003 to 2006.

IRAN: Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology by Christopher Rhoads and Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal June 22nd, 2009The Iranian regime has developed one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet. The Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection. The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company.

CHINA: China Disables Some Google Functionsby Edward Wong, New York Times June 19th, 2009After meeting with managers of the Chinese operations of Google on Thursday to warn them, the Chinese government disabled some search functions on the Chinese-language Web site of Google on Friday. Officials alleged the site was linking too often to pornographic and vulgar content.

AFRICA: Battle to Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbsby Celia W. Dugger, New York Times June 9th, 2009The fight against corruption in Africa is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. The search is on for more effective ways to tackle corruption, including intensified legal efforts to prosecute multinational corporations that pay the bribes and reclaim loot that African political elites have stashed abroad.

NIGERIA: Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Caseby Jad Mouawad, New York TimesJune 8th, 2009Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, a striking sum given it has denied any wrongdoing. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shell’s most prominent critic at the time in Nigeria, was hanged in 1995 by that country’s military regime after protesting Shell's environmental practices in the oil-rich delta, especially in his native Ogoni region.

US: Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for U.S. Governmentby CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOHN MARKOFF, New York TimesMay 30th, 2009The Obama administration’s push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.

US: Chevron annual meeting heats up over Ecuador suitby Jordan Robertson, Washington Post May 27th, 2009In a combative and sometimes colorful annual meeting, Chevron's CEO and chairman exchanged barbs with activists over pollution in the Amazon rain forest and the company's human rights record. The nation's second-largest oil company is awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador that could come with a $27 billion price tag.

FRANCE/UAE: Gulf base shows shift in France’s focusby Ben Hall and Andrew England, Financial TimesMay 25th, 2009France's new naval base in Abu Dhabi, its first overseas military base in 50 years, has sparked a round of lobbying on behalf of lucrative business for French companies including Dassault, the military aircraft maker, and a consortium of Total, GdF-Suez and Areva, which is bidding to build two nuclear power stations in the UAE. Dassault is hoping to sell as many as 60 of its Rafale fighters to the UAE.

WORLD: When Chevron Hires Ex-Reporter to Investigate Pollution, Chevron Looks Goodby Brian Stelter, New York Times May 10th, 2009When Chevron learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador, it hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view. An Ecuadorean judge is expected to rule soon on whether Chevron owes up to $27 billion in damages.

NIGERIA: A Writer’s Violent End, and His Activist Legacyby Patricia Cohen, New York TimesMay 4th, 2009A new novel, "Eclipse," by Richard North Patterson, is based on the case of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed in November 1995 by the government of General Sani Abacha. The circumstances, along with related incidents of brutal attacks, are getting another hearing. This month the Wiwa family’s lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell over its role in those events goes to trial in federal court in Manhattan.

US: N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide Inquiryby Danny Hakim, New York TimesApril 13th, 2009New York State prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest and most politically connected private equity firms, made millions of dollars in improper payments to intermediaries in exchange for investments from New York’s state pension fund.

US: Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obama’s Green Lead by Jad Mouawad, New York Times April 7th, 2009The Obama administration seeks the most ambitious transformation of energy policy in a generation. But Big Oil is not on board. Royal Dutch Shell said last month that it would freeze research and investments in wind, solar and hydrogen power, and focus its alternative energy efforts on biofuels. BP, a company that has spent nine years saying it was moving “beyond petroleum,” has been getting back to petroleum since 2007, paring back its renewable program. The list goes on.

US: Contracting Boom Could Fizzle Outby Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post April 7th, 2009The surge in the U.S. military contracting workforce would ebb under Defense Secretary Gates's budget proposal as the Pentagon moves to replace private workers with full-time civil servants. The move could affect companies such as CACI and SAIC. "We are right-sizing the defense acquisition workforce so we can improve our contract oversight and get a better deal for the taxpayers," said the Pentagon's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy.

IRAQ: Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobsby Rod Nordland, New York Times April 3rd, 2009Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq, but by next month many of its private security guards will be back on the job here. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s new contract.

US: Pentagon Weighs Cuts and Revisions of Weaponsby Christopher Drew, New York Times April 3rd, 2009U.S. defense executives and consultants are worried about the sweeping changes in military programs that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to announce on Monday. Weapons systems like missile defense are likely to endure deep cuts.

CHINA: Banks Face Big Losses From Bets on Chinese Realtyby David Barboza , New York Times April 3rd, 2009Evergrande Real Estate Group, now mired in debt, has become a symbol of China’s go-go era of investing, when international bankers, private equity deal makers and hedge fund managers from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and others rushed here hoping to cash in on the world’s biggest building boom.

US: Banks Get New Leeway in Valuing Their Assets by Floyd Norris, New York Times April 2nd, 2009A once-obscure accounting rule was changed Thursday to give banks more discretion in reporting the value of mortgage securities. Apparently under political pressure, the five-member Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a controversial change that makes it possible for banks to keep some declines in asset values off their income statements.

CANADA: The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottomby Robert Kunzig, National GeographicMarch 1st, 2009Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions.
Syncrude and Suncor are two of the largest producers of bitumen; Canada is now the largest importer of oil to the United States, with tar sands exploitation slated to increase rapidly over the next five years.

CHINA: Morgan Stanley’s Chinese Land Scandalby David Barboza , New York TimesMarch 1st, 2009In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Morgan Stanley said it had fired an executive in its China real estate division after uncovering evidence that he might have violated the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American business people from bribing foreign officials.

US: 'Card check' ballots to determine union representationby Erin Rosa, Colorado IndependentFebruary 24th, 2009Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was in Denver on Monday to decry H.R. 800, federal legislation that would give workers greater rights to unionize. Spencer spoke at the offices of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry and warned of the “most radical rewrite of labor law in 70 years.”

US: The Looming Crisis at the Pentagonby Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.comFebruary 2nd, 2009Like much of the rest of the world, Americans know that the U.S. automotive industry is in the grips of what may be a fatal decline. A similar crisis exists when it comes to the military-industrial complex. That crisis has its roots in the corrupt and deceitful practices that have long characterized the high command of the Armed Forces, civilian executives of the armaments industries, and Congressional opportunists and pay-to-play criminals.

US: Deputy SecDef could earn $500K lobbying Pentagonby Lara Jakes, Washington Post January 27th, 2009William J. Lynn, the man nominated to be the Pentagon's second-in-command could make a half-million dollars next month with vested stock he earned as a lobbyist for military contractor Raytheon. This is despite an Obama administration order against "revolving door" lobbyists who become public officials.

US: Bank of America Board Under Gun From Criticsby Louise Story and Julie Creswell, New York Times January 27th, 2009As Bank of America's board meets next week, shareholders have turned up the pressure on CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. Their scrutiny has also turned an unusual spotlight on the oversight role played by the bank's board members.

SWITZERLAND: Davos Scales Back Glitzby Associated Press, New York Times January 25th, 2009The economic crisis that emerged out the collapse of securities based on shaky U.S. mortgages poses challenges for the Davos World Economic Forum, an arena that has championed market-driven approaches.

US: Rubin Leaving Citigroup; Smith Barney for Saleby Eric Dash and Louise Story, New York Times January 9th, 2009Robert Rubin will resign from the beleaguered Citigroup. As Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made Citigroup's creation possible. He also helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products during that time.

US: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wideby MONICA DAVEY, New York Times December 7th, 2008In a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs this year is boiling over, workers laid off from Republic Windows and Doors, said they would not leave, after company officials announced that the factory was closing. The workers were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law in lay-offs.

CANADA/IRAQ: Drill, Garner, Drillby Anthony Fenton, Mother Jones November 24th, 2008In the history of the Iraq War, one name is perhaps synonymous with the collapse of the Bush administration's hopes for a post-Saddam world: Retired Lt. General Jay M. Garner, who served as the first post-war administrator. This year, he and a small group of former US military leaders, officials, and lobbyists have quietly used their Kurdistan connections to help Canadian companies access some of the region's richest oil fields.

SOUTH AFRICA: Apartheid lawsuit back in US court SABC NewsSeptember 25th, 2008After six years of battling, the plaintiffs must prove whether certain multinationals enabled the apartheid government to commit acts of gross human rights violations. Among the 21 defendants are oil, vehicle and financial companies which continue to operate in South Africa -- the likes of BP, Shell, Chevron Texaco, Barclays, Daimler Chrysler and Rio Tinto. They stand accused of supporting the former regime with arms and ammunition, financing, fuel, transportation and military technology.

US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billionsby John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks.

ISRAEL: U.S. approves $330 million in arms deals for Israelby Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters September 9th, 2008The U.S. government on Tuesday said it had approved up to $330 million in three separate arms deals for Israel, and sources tracking a much bigger deal for 25 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets said that agreement could be approved later this month.

UK-Zimbabwe: BAE linked to Zimbabwean arms dealerby Christopher Thompson and Michael Peel , Financial Times/UKJuly 31st, 2008According to documents seen by the Financial Times, BAE Systems has been linked to Zimbabwean arms trader John Bredenkamp. BAE reportedly paid at least Ł20m to Bredenkamp via offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands between 2003 and 2005. The payments raise fresh questions about bribery in BAE's dealings.

Iraq: U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Dealsby Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times June 30th, 2008The Bush administration has disclosed that U.S. advisors in Iraq played a key role in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies. The no-bid contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies.

SWITZERLAND: Tax scandal leaves Swiss giant reelingby Nick Mathiason, The Guardian (UK)June 29th, 2008Sending shockwaves through the Swiss financial industry, banking giant UBS is facing accusations from a former senior banker in US courts of massive fraud and corruption. UBS is alleged to have engaged in routine activities aimed at helping its high net worth clients evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, among other matters.

US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientistby Ed Pilkington, Guardian (UK)June 23rd, 2008On June 23, James Hansen, a leading world climate scientist, called for the executives of major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy, to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature through actions like funding climate skeptics to undermine global consensus around combating climate change.

KATRINA: Audit Faults KBR's Repairs of Hurricane Damage by Derek Kravitz, The Washington PostJune 18th, 2008Efforts by defense contractor KBR to repair hurricane-damaged Navy facilities were deemed shoddy and substandard, and one technical adviser alleged that the federal government "certainly paid twice" for many KBR projects because of "design and workmanship deficiencies," the Pentagon's inspector general reported in an audit released yesterday.

US: 30 Former Officials Became Corporate Monitors
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and KITTY BENNETT, The New York TimesMay 23rd, 2008The Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution, according to government data released Thursday by Congress.

RUSSIA: As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russiaby Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times May 11th, 2008Gazprom and the Russian government have long had a close relationship, but the revolving door between them is spinning especially fast this year. But Gazprom also epitomizes the risks of state capitalism: waste and inefficiency.

US: House panel questions Bear rescue planby James Politi , The Financial TimesApril 8th, 2008The rescue of Bear Stearns faced further scrutiny in Congress on Tuesday as a powerful Democratic lawmaker demanded more information on the selection of BlackRock as investment manager for $30bn in the bank’s mortgage assets.

EUROPE: In Europe, widening probe targets tax havenby Mark Rice Oxley and Jeffrey White, Christian Science MonitorMarch 25th, 2008Nearly two decades after taking the helm of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel surrendered to police amid suspicion that he evaded €1 million in taxes. The next day, he resigned, becoming the first to fall in a massive probe that has broadened to nine other countries.

US: Pesticide maker owned by political donor
by Matthew Yi, San Francisco ChronicleMarch 8th, 2008The company that makes one of the pesticides state officials are
considering spraying over the Bay Area to fight the light brown apple moth is owned by a wealthy California agribusinessman who has been a generous contributor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials.

CAYMAN ISLANDS: Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore
by Farah Stockman, The Boston GlobeMarch 6th, 2008Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

US: In Shift, Ashcroft to Testify on Oversight Dealby Carrie Johnson, The Washington PostFebruary 26th, 2008Former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft agreed last night to appear at a House hearing to discuss his lucrative arrangement overseeing a medical equipment company, averting a showdown with committee members who had planned to meet today to authorize a subpoena.

US: Inside the world of war profiteers
by David Jackson and Jason Grotto|Tribune reporters, Chicago TribuneFebruary 21st, 2008Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

US: 12 Years for Contractor in Bribery Caseby ELLIOT SPAGAT, APFebruary 20th, 2008A defense contractor was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday for bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with cash, trips, the services of prostitutes and other gifts in exchange for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work.

US: Holes in the Wall
by Melissa del Bosque, The Texas ObserverFebruary 18th, 2008As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.

UK: BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi princeby David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian (UK)February 15th, 2008Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than Ł1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

US: Bush Presses House to Approve Bill on Surveillance
by ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York TimesFebruary 13th, 2008The president’s remarks came the morning after the Senate handed the White House a major victory by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants.

US: An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donorby JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., The New York Times January 31st, 2008Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

US: Giuliani Had Ties to Company Trying to Sell Border Technologyby RUSS BUETTNER, New York TimesJanuary 18th, 2008On the presidential campaign trail, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani often promotes the installation of electronic monitoring devices at the border to stem illegal immigration, without mentioning that until a few months ago, he was partner in a company trying to market such technology.

US: Corporate Fraud Lawsuits Restricted
by Robert Barnes and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post January 16th, 2008The Supreme Court yesterday strictly limited the ability of investors who lost money through corporate fraud to sue other businesses that may have helped facilitate the crime, a decision that could doom stockholder efforts to recover billions of dollars lost in Enron and other high-profile cases.

US: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industryby Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Scott Shane, New York TimesDecember 16th, 2007The Bush administration is waging a high-profile campaign to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program. At stake is the federal government's partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime.

US: Law firm seeks nearly $700 mil for Enron pactsby Martha Graybow, Reuters November 21st, 2007The law firm that helped win $7.2 billion in settlements for Enron investors is seeking nearly $700 million in legal fees for itself and other attorneys who handled the case, according to court documents.

EU: Court hits at Brussels secrecyby Andy Bounds, Financial TimesNovember 8th, 2007The European Union's secretive decision-making processes were condemned on Thursday in a legal judgment that should lead to more light being shed on how thousands of regulations affecting businesses are hatched.

BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Growsby Michael Diebert, IPSOctober 4th, 2007The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders.

US: Billions over Baghdad; The Spoils of Warby Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Vanity FairOctober 1st, 2007Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency--much of it belonging to the Iraqi people--was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed.

IRAQ: Big oil’s waiting game over Iraq’s reserves
by Ed Crooks and Sheila McNulty, Financial TimesSeptember 19th, 2007Oil companies face a dilemma in Iraq over whether to wait for a new oil law which will give them a legal framework in which to operate or to sign agreements now with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the risk of sullying relations with Baghdad and the rest of the country.

US: '60s Figure Says He Financed Donor Hsuby Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Brody Mullins, Wall Street Journal September 12th, 2007A company controlled by Democratic Party donor Norman Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock festival in 1969. That money, Mr. Rosenman told investors this week, is missing.

EU: EU lobbyists face tougher regulationby Andrew Bounds and Marine Formentini, Financial TimesAugust 16th, 2007Europe seems set for US-style controls on lobbying after the biggest public affairs companies in Brussels ruled out voluntary regulation because they would have to divulge their clients and fees.

US: Navajos and Environmentalists Split on Power Plantby Felicity Barringer, The New York TimesJuly 27th, 2007A plan to build a new, large coal-fired power plant has proved divisive in the Navajo community in Nevada, with some arguing that it will bring the community millions, while others saying it is a lethal "energy monster" and harbinger of environmental destruction.

US: Savings and Issues in Candidates’ Use of Private Jetsby Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne, The New York TimesJuly 26th, 2007Political fortunes and high costs have forced some presidential candidates to switch from using chartered private jets to those of corporations, including John McCain, who had previously sponsored a bill limiting use of corporate jets by candidates.

ITALY: Devil's Advocateby Daniel Fisher, ForbesJuly 24th, 2007Italian oil giant Eni has a long history of cutting deals with anyone, and of accusations of corruption and bribery. Now that its future hangs on Russia and its notorious reputation in the energy market, has Eni finally met its match?

SOUTH AFRICA: Globalization Brings South Africa Gains -- and Pains by David Wessel, The Wall Street JournalJune 21st, 2007Globalization has been both a boon and a bane for South Africa; it has helped along the country's integration into the global economy and strengthened its regional political position, but it has also contributed to the widening gap between a wealthy minority and the poor majority, something that is creating a whole new generation of disenfranchised citizens.

CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds reportby Dino Mahtani, Financial TimesMay 8th, 2007The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president

CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds reportby Dino Mahtani, Financial TimesMay 8th, 2007The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged
mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president.

UK: Rowntree dumps its Reed sharesby Katherine Griffiths, TelegraphFebruary 13th, 2007Two investors in Reed Elsevier have sold their shares as a protest that the publishing giant runs arms fairs which have included the sale of torture equipment.

US: US charges oil-for-food chiefby Brooke Masters and Mark Turner, Financial TimesJanuary 16th, 2007Benon Sevan, the administrator who was in charge of overseeing the United Nation's oil-for-food programme for Iraq, was indicted on Tuesday on federal charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as part of a growing attempt by prosecutors to hold UN employees accountable to US laws.

KAZAKHSTAN: Oil, Cash and Corruptionby Ron Stodghill, The New York TimesNovember 5th, 2006In February, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan is scheduled to go to trial in the largest foreign bribery case brought against an American citizen. It involves a labyrinthine trail of international financial transfers, suspected money laundering and a dizzying array of domestic and overseas shell corporations. The criminal case names Mr. Nazarbayev as an unindicted co-conspirator.

EU: Chemicals: A tale of fear and lobbyingby Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald TribuneOctober 27th, 2006Three years ago, Margot Wallstrom, who was then the European Union's environment commissioner, revealed to a startled Brussels press corps that a blood test had found the presence of 28 artificial chemicals in her body, including DDT, a pesticide banned from European farms since 1983, when it was found to harm wildlife and attack the nervous system.

EU: Lobbying, European styleby Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald TribuneOctober 27th, 2006If the European Union's eight-year effort to tighten laws governing chemicals testing has spawned one of the biggest and most costly industry lobbying campaigns that Brussels has ever seen, it has also given new impetus to efforts to regulate how lobbying is done at the European Commission.

US: Rep. Ney Admits Selling Influenceby James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt, Washington PostSeptember 16th, 2006Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) agreed yesterday to plead guilty to corruption charges after admitting to performing a variety of official acts for lobbyists in exchange for campaign contributions, expensive meals, luxury travel, sports tickets and thousands of dollars in gambling chips. He is the first elected official to face prison time in the ongoing influence-peddling investigation of former GOP lobbying powerhouse Jack Abramoff.

US: Once an Enemy, Health Industry Warms to Clintonby Raymond Hernandez and Robert Pear, The New York TimesJuly 12th, 2006Some of the same interests that tried to derail Mrs. Clinton’s health care overhaul are providing support for her Senate re-election bid. The Health Insurance Association of America ran the famous “Harry and Louise” commercials mocking the Clinton health care plan as impenetrably complex. Some companies that were members of that group are now donating to Mrs. Clinton.

US: Lawmaker Criticized for PAC Fees Paid to Wifeby Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Washington PostJuly 11th, 2006In the past two years, campaign and political action committees controlled by Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) paid ever-larger commissions to his wife's one-person company and spent tens of thousands of dollars on gifts at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co. and a Ritz-Carlton day spa.

US: Lay's Death Complicates Efforts to Seize Assetsby Simon Romero, The New York TimesJuly 6th, 2006In yet another bizarre twist to the Enron saga, the sudden death of Kenneth L. Lay on Wednesday may have spared his survivors financial ruin. Mr. Lay's death effectively voids the guilty verdict against him, temporarily thwarting the federal government's efforts to seize his remaining real estate and financial assets, legal experts say.

US: SEC Lawyer Dismissed for a Donor?by Ari Berman, The NationJune 28th, 2006Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating one of the nation's largest hedge funds, Pequot Capitol Management, for possible insider trading. Up until last summer, the inquiry was headed by SEC lawyer Gary Aguirre. His investigation proceeded smoothly, Aguirre claims, until he asked for testimony from former Pequot chairman and Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack, a top Bush donor.

US: Justices Reject Campaign Limits in Vermont Caseby Linda Greenhouse, The New York TimesJune 27th, 2006Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and on campaign spending by candidates are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a splintered 6-to-3 decision suggesting that efforts to limit the role of money in politics might face considerable resistance in the Roberts court.

US: In Las Vegas, They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deckby Michael J. Goodman and William C. Rempel, The Los Angeles TimesJune 8th, 2006When Judge Gene T. Porter last ran for reelection, a group of Las Vegas lawyers sponsored a fundraiser for him at Big Bear in California. Even by Las Vegas standards, it was brazen. Some of the sponsors had cases before him. One case was set for a crucial hearing in four days.

US: Taking Sides on 'Net Neutrality'by Jim Puzzanghera, The Los Angeles TimesJune 6th, 2006Former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry is no stranger to well-aimed political attacks. After all, he held down the briefing room podium for Bill Clinton during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a task he compared to being a "human pinata."

US: Privately Funded Trips Add Up on Capitol Hillby Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington PostJune 6th, 2006Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to date on the subject of congressional travel.

US: Playing Politics With Federal ContractsOMB WatchMay 17th, 2006Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Alphonso Jackson suggested at a forum in Dallas that federal contracts would not be awarded to those who have political disagreements with President Bush.

US: Congressman's Condo Deal Is Examined
by JODI RUDOREN and ARON PILHOFER, The New York TimesMay 17th, 2006At the center of a federal inquiry into Representative Alan B. Mollohan, Democrat of West Virginia, is his real estate investment with a bankrupt distant cousin who touted his connections to one of Mr. Mollohan's nonprofit organizations to win work, including a federal contract in his district.

US: Katherine Harris in Hot Water Over Defense ContractorAssociated PressMay 4th, 2006A political strategist who left U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record)'s Senate campaign last month said Harris ignored her staff's recommendation to reject a defense contractor's $10 million appropriation request, now being challenged by a congressional watchdog group.

US: Red Lights on Capitol Hillby Ken Sliverstein, HarpersMay 3rd, 2006I reported last Thursday that Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Inc., a firm allegedly used by defense contractor Brent Wilkes to provide prostitutes to ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham, is headed by a man who has a long criminal rap sheet and is also a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was Mitchell Wade, another defense contractor who has acknowledged bribing Cunningham, and who is cooperating with investigators, who reportedly told prosecutors about Shirlington's relationship with Wilkes and the latter's alleged pimping scheme. (Wilkes's attorney denies the charge.)

US: Enron Prosecutor Questions Skilling's Storyby Vikas Bajaj and Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesApril 17th, 2006A prosecutor tried to poke holes in the testimony of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, today by boring in on stock sales he made in the months after he left the company and before the energy company declared bankruptcy.

US: The Enron Standardby Lee Drutman, tompaine.comApril 13th, 2006In a Houston courtroom this week, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling took the witness stand to plead his innocence, telling jurors that â€śMy life is on the line.â€ť

US: Unwitting Shoppers Recruited for Wal-Mart PR Fightby Marilyn Geewax, Cox News ServiceApril 4th, 2006Last December, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., created its own grassroots group, Working Families for Wal-Mart. It hired Edelman, a global public relations firm, to organize the group out of its Washington office and launch a nationwide campaign.

US: Proposals Call For Disclosure of Ties to Lobbyistsby Jonathan Weisman, Washington PostMarch 27th, 2006As long as there is no explicit quid pro quo, lawmakers can channel clients to lobbyists, who help secure home-district pet projects, or "earmarks," and in turn, those lobbyists can send part of their fees back in the form of campaign contributions. But in the wake of the corruption scandals of former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, congressional reformers want to shine a light on dealings that have even a whiff of impropriety.

US: Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oilby Edmund L. Andrews, The New York TimesMarch 27th, 2006Last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful.

US: Former DeLay aide enriched by nonprofitby R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington PostMarch 25th, 2006A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

US: Did a Group Financed by Exxon
Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace?by Steve Stecklow, The Wall Street JournalMarch 21st, 2006Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes. What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests.

US: Skilling's Lawyer Portrays an Accuser as Out of Touch
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesFebruary 16th, 2006A lawyer for Jeffrey K. Skilling, a former Enron chief executive, tried Wednesday to portray the head of the company's broadband unit as an out-of-touch manager who was criticized for his free-spending ways and did not even know how many employees were working under him.

US: 10 Enron Players: Where They Landed After the Fallby staff, The New York TimesJanuary 29th, 2006KENNETH L. LAY and his second in command, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were the public faces of Enron, painting a rosy picture of strong profits and healthy businesses. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees.

US: Big Test Looms for Prosecutors at Enron Trialby Kurt Eichenwald, The New York TimesJanuary 26th, 2006"For the government, if they lose the Enron case, it will be seen as a symbolic failure of their rather significant campaign against white-collar crime," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It will be seen as some evidence that some cases are too complicated to be brought into the criminal justice process."

US: Taking Enron to Taskby Carrie Johnson, Washington PostJanuary 18th, 2006Sean M. Berkowitz and a small group of government lawyers will be in the spotlight in the Jan. 30 trial of Enron's former leaders. The case is the capstone in the cleanup after an era of business misconduct that left investors billions of dollars poorer. The outcome could shape the public's -- and history's -- judgment of how effective it was.

US: Prosecutors Shift Focus on Enronby Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesJanuary 11th, 2006Government lawyers who will try the case against Enron's former chief executives, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, have signaled that they intend to spend less time befuddling jurors with talk of Enron's accounting.

US: Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualtyby Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi, Washington PostJanuary 10th, 2006One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

US: Call It the Deal of a Lifetimeby Landon Thomas, Jr., The New York TimesJanuary 8th, 2006It has been a wrenching professional and personal reversal for Michael Kopper, who three years ago became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges and cut a deal with the government. Mr. Kopper was also the first high-ranking Enron employee to publicly admit to lying and stealing - in his case, more than $16 million - from the company.

US: Lobbyist Pleads Guilty in Florida; Second Plea in 2 Daysby Abby Goodnough and Anne E. Kornblut, The New York TimesJanuary 4th, 2006A day after he pleaded guilty to three felony counts in Washington, Jack Abramoff, a once prominent Republican lobbyist, pleaded guilty today to two felony charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case stemming from his purchase of a casino boat line in 2000.

US: U.S. says Skilling mislead the SECCNNJanuary 4th, 2006Prosecutors intend to argue that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling attempted to deceive the Securities and Exchange Commission in a deposition he gave soon after the company's bankruptcy about his reason for selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock, according to a motion filed in a Houston federal court Tuesday.

US: The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trailby R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington PostDecember 31st, 2005The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

US: Former Top Enron Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraudby Simon Romero and Vikas Bajas, The New York TimesDecember 28th, 2005The former chief accounting officer of Enron pleaded guilty today to a single felony charge of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, giving a significant lift to the government's case against the two leading figures in the scandal over Enron's collapse.

US: Donors underwrite DeLay's luxury lifestyle
by Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer, Associated PressDecember 20th, 2005As Tom DeLay became a king of campaign fundraising, he lived like one too. He visited cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants - all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire.

US: Shining Light on Corporate Political Giftsby Floyd Norris, The New York TimesDecember 16th, 2005Which politicians - and which political causes - are your companies financing? Will those contributions come back to haunt them as prosecutors go after lobbyists for expenditures that could be deemed contributions - or bribes?

US: Poll Shows Americans Distrust Corporationsby Claudia H. Deutsch, The New York TimesDecember 10th, 2005Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets.

Britain: British Upset by Scale of Iraqi Ministry CorruptionThe GuardianAugust 23rd, 2005British officials are seriously concerned about the level of corruption in the Iraqi defense ministry, after the embezzlement of vast amounts of money earmarked for the country's security forces.
Officials from the British Ministry of Defense had already warned US and Iraqi authorities against the squandering of money -- and have been proved right, on a catastrophic scale.

Ghana: Comparing "Hotel Kufuor" to other Presidential Scandalsby Katie Bell , Home Page Ghana August 21st, 2005COUNTS of massive corruption within governments weave their way through almost every nation. Yet, the accusations surrounding President Kufuor’s involvement in the ‘Hotel Scandal’ seems negligible and overhand when compared to past and ongoing corruption scandals hitting the headlines elsewhere. It seems a bit of underhand dealing comes with the job. The question arises however, of where does one draw the line?

US: The Big Tug of War Over Unocalby Steve Lohr, New York TimesJuly 6th, 2005As the lobbying heats up in Washington over Unocal, a midsize American oil company, the battle lines in the takeover contest are now drawn clearly, if oddly, by its suitors.

BRAZIL: Paving the Amazonby Marcelo Ballve, AlterNetMarch 5th, 2005In the aftermath of the assassination of Dorothy Stang, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva is scrambling to appear green. But many fear that an unholy alliance between government and agribusiness will bring more forest destruction.

MEXICO: First Lady's Foundation Leaves Grey Areasby Sara Silver, Financial TimesFebruary 24th, 2005Marta Sahagún de Fox, Mexico's first lady, has repeatedly denied using her philanthropic foundation (which has ties to Coca-Cola) to advance political ambitions. So it may be nothing more than coincidence that as the country moves towards elections next year, Vamos Mexico's media campaign has moved into high gear.

US: Of, By and For Big Businessby Robert Scheer, AlterNetFebruary 22nd, 2005Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the Republicans who control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the coup de grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to Wall Street.

US: A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vetsby Glen Justice, New York TimesFebruary 19th, 2005Taking its cues from the success of last year's Swift boat veterans' campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush's toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security.

US: Former JP Morgan Vice President Will Plead Guiltyby Jon Hurdle, ReutersJanuary 12th, 2005Anthony Snell, a former vice president of the Wall Street firm, will on Thursday plead guilty to wire fraud offenses, after previously denying the charges, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

US: War is Bad for Businessby Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy In FocusDecember 31st, 2004On top of the human and financial costs of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas, according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.

EU: Corporate Lobbying Growsby Stefania Bianchi, Inter Press ServiceDecember 22nd, 2004Groups say corporate lobby groups, which include industrial associations, political consultants and cross-industry groups, are gaining "far too much political influence" in the European Union (EU) decision-making process, and are calling for the European Commission, the EU executive, "to curb the excessive influence" of such groups.

US: Departing Lawmakers Cash in Years of Service for Big Bucksby Matt Stearns, Knight RidderDecember 22nd, 2004With the 108th Congress now passed into history, another Washington tradition is playing out this month as departing members of Congress, rather than returning home, trade their years of service for big paychecks from lobbying groups, investment banks and law firms.

US: Lobbyists Try to Kill Philidelphia Inexpensive Wireless Planby Marc Levy, Associated PressNovember 24th, 2004Philadelphia's plan to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a municipal service — the most ambitious yet by a major U.S. city — has collided with commercial interests including the local phone company, Verizon Communications Inc.

UK: British Companies Demand Relaxed Regulationsby David Hencke and Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK)November 17th, 2004Three of Britain's blue chip companies told the government they would boycott its export guarantee scheme unless tough new rules over bribery and corruption were relaxed.

US: Union Plans Four-Day Strike Against SBCAssociated PressMay 19th, 2004The union representing 102,000 employees of SBC Communications Inc. said Wednesday it would stage a four-day strike starting Friday because of a deadlock in contract negotiations with the nation's second biggest local phone company.

US: Professors Back Kerry With Campaign Givingby Brian C. Mooney, Boston GlobeMay 18th, 2004Voting with their checkbooks, college professors are breaking overwhelmingly for Senator John F. Kerry over President Bush, with the Democratic challenger raising nearly three times as much in campaign contributions from college campuses. The fund-raising trend contrasts sharply with the 2000 presidential race, when Bush raised slightly more money from academia than Al Gore.

Iraq: Oil-Slick James Bakerby Greg Palast, AlterNetApril 28th, 2004There's nothing in the Iraq Strategy about democracy or voting. But there's plenty of detail about creating a free-market Disneyland in Mesopotamia, with "all" state assets and that's just about everything in that nation to be sold off to corporate powers. The Bush team secret program ordered: "... asset sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, especially those in the oil and supporting industries."